How far had the New Deal been successful by 1941

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Introduction

How far had the New Deal been successful by 1941? During 1929 many people invested in the stock market, this led to the stock becoming less and less valuable, this eventually led to the Wall Street Crash. The current Republican President, Herbert Clark Hoover was not seen to be doing enough so he was succeeded By President Franklin Delano Roosevelt' (FDR) , who would end the depression with his 'New Deal'. Roosevelt holds the unique distinction of being elected four times by the people of America. Roosevelt's place in American history has been fixed due to the New Deal but also because he rose to the highest position in America despite having a crippling cardiovascular illness. In his first 100 days he passed masses of laws to get the U.S out of the depression. The 3 aims of the New Deal were Relief, Recovery and Reform. In my opinion the New Deal could have been far more successful if Roosevelt had chose to continue his level of investment, maybe if he even increased it. Roosevelt stopped 'priming the pump' and this led to the 'Roosevelt Recession'. I believe that by 1941 The New Deal could have succeeded in completely reviving the U.S economy, and it would not have taking the Second World War to end the depression, had it not been for FDR stopping his spending. ...read more.

Middle

It was introduced at a time when it was most needed this provided relief as well as reform. However there were many factors that prevented the Social security act from being as successful as it could have been. The payments were relatively small, the old age pensioner would get $10 a month, and a disabled person $5 a week, where the average wage a month was $80. The social security acts only helped the strong and well organised groups such as the trade unions, and the people who didn't benefit were tenant farmers, unskilled labourers, domestic servants and ethnic minorities. Alphabet agencies such as the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Public Works Administration (PWA) employed men to work on Federal funded projects, this was successful as it produced needed government buildings, and in the short-term lowered unemployment. However it didn't really solve unemployment, the workforce were only employed for a short while, it wasn't really solving unemployment as when the projects were completed the workers were once more unemployed, it only really worked in the short-term . The new deal was successful in lowering unemployment until 1937 when he lowered his spending, and the so-called 'Roosevelt recession' came into effect, and once more there was more unemployment and until the start of the Second World War in 1941 it continued to climb. ...read more.

Conclusion

The most famous single opponent of Roosevelt was Huey Long a senator from Louisiana. He targeted only the poor in his 'share our wealth' campaign where he promised to confiscate any personal fortune over $3 000 000 and give $4000 to $5000 to each poor family in America. Long made promises of a minimum wage, OAP, cheap food for the poor, and free education. Long was considered to be communist, and so was killed during an attempted assassination attempt by one of his bodyguards. However Long was only targeting the poor, and the poor don't vote well in elections, so he probably wouldn't have beaten Roosevelt, had he lived. Another one of Roosevelt's enemies were a catholic priest called Charles Coughlin, and Frances Townsend. Charles Coughlin opposed Roosevelt on his radio station, and wanted a high minimum wage, Townsend wanted higher OAP. The two men allied themselves with Gerald Smith, Huey Long's successor, and they teamed up in 1936 election. In my opinion the New Deal was successful in providing partial recovery from the depression. It succeeded in relieving Whatever the views of some, FDR was voted the second greatest president of all time by the U.S public. This is apparent in his famous quote:- "Everybody is against me except the voter." How far had the New Deal been successful by 1941? Gurpal Kanwal 11mEPO 1 ...read more.

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